Compulsive thinking : Thought and insanity

Do we think? or Does our thinking happen?

•       We chew the food and also we digest the food. There is lot of difference in our ability to control both the processes.

•        We can make the chewing happen but digestion happens without our conscious involvement and control.

•       We cannot say we digested the food. We can only say that the food got digested. In the same way we cannot make our heart beat, we cannot make our blood circulate, we cannot move our intestine.

•       Now the question comes. Do we think or Does the thinking happen?
   Compulsive thinking:  Thought and insanity

•       Most of my stressed out patients when I ask them “why do you think so much?” reply “ I don’t want to think, thoughts just come to my mind”. They say this as if the thinking is a complete involuntary process which is beyond their control.

•       Attendants of these patient complain me saying “Sir this patient does not have problem from any front but he keeps on thinking “as if thinking is a complete voluntary process.

•       Thought is a prime entity of the mind. It is the thought which has evolved the world and made the human being the supreme creature of the world. However, the same thought when it strikes the consciousness repeatedly without being called for makes the supreme creature [the human] an insane. This is called compulsive thinking.

               pic@ Compulsive thinking                                                                                                                                                                           
      Controlled Thinking:  Thought and wisdom

•       Great scientists had to work for years to come across a great idea(thought).  Those discoveries were made by evaluating great number of thoughts. Here the thoughts are being operated in a controlled manner. Continuous efforts were made to bring a needed thought into the focus. Organising ideas and thoughts in a controlled way is the sign of wisdom. Ability to bring a wanted idea into the focus in a wanted time is wisdom. However, the inability to stop an unwanted thought in an unwanted time is insanity.

Pic@ Controlled Thinking

The primary entities which operate the thought are :

 focus,

memory and imagination,

emotion,

ignorance

                                                      

  Thought and focus      

•       Focus is a point where our consciousness flows.

•       Anything which comes into the focus becomes alive for us. Anything which comes into our focus exists for us in that moment.

•     When we focus on a thought within us or an object outside us. A series of thoughts and images run in our mind. These thoughts and images were previously linked to the thought in the focus over a period of time ( Example: when you remember your close friends face or when you find a gift given by him ,A series of images,thoughts of the times and places you spent together with him flashes in your mind.The feel of happiness follows these images.)

•      In the same way when I say the word “Exams” to a child.  There are a series of internal representation of thoughts before he experiences the feel of fear or confidence.

The series of thoughts and emotions in Child 1

The series of thoughts and emotions in child 2

1.    This series of thoughts differ from student to student (Child 1 to Child 2).                              

2.    This series is generated automatically after the keyword “exams”.

3.    This series of thoughts ends in emotion. Once an emotion is generated the thought cycle is reinforced.

4.    Once an emotion is generated the thought becomes more realistic and the thought and the idea outgrow the child's focus and the child tends to associate more with his thought.

5.   At this stage the thinking becomes involuntary, The child won’t think consciously, thinking just happens. (Compulsive thinking).

 channelizing the consciousness

•       Variation in the direction and quantity of the water flow is due to variation in the direction and dimension of the water channels.

•       In the same way variation in the thought and emotion of each student for  a stimulus is due to the  variation in the channels through which their consciousness flow. These channels are nothing but beliefs, association (linkage)  of various thoughts to each other.
•       The formation of the channels happens in the child under the influence of a teacher, friends, family, personal experiences, books, media, and the internet.

Thought and memory

•       If I ask you to remember the most treasured moment of your life. You think for few seconds. You then visualize  few images and experience happy feelings that were associated to that moment.

•       What did you notice? When I asked you to remember you projected the focus into the memory box of the mind and retrieved a few images from the memory.

•       It means your memory is the heap of innumerable thoughts. You just have to dictate a command to direct your focus on to the thought. A wise man knows what commands are needed to tap the memories that take him forward.

•       In other words, one just needs the wisdom of giving a correct suggestion to himself that can direct the focus to the enriching and progressive memory.

    Thought and imagination

•       If I ask you to imagine a flying buffalo. Immediately you visualize a buffalo with large wings. If you are more imaginative you will probably visualize the buffalo flying high in the sky along with other birds in the clouds.

•       I picked up buffalo from my memory. I also picked up wings from my memory. I customized the size of the wings and I attached them to the buffalo and made it fly. Imagination is dependent on memory. It has no boundaries. It has infinite permutations and combinations when we link one memory to another.

•       Imagination is intuitive. It is unreal. It has dimensions that are guided by us.

•       When the child forecasts the outcomes of the exam, both the positive and negative forecasts are imaginative and unreal.

Thought and emotion

•       Emotion is a more powerful force than a thought. The thought is microlevel energy which doesn't show any physical changes. Emotion unlike a thought causes change in the posture, physiology, and muscles and movement of the body.

•       Emotion rises at the junction of the mind and the body. Emotion is better experienced and perceived than the thought.

•       Most of the peoples thoughts are highly influenced and changed by the emotions unless those thoughts are deeply rooted by strong values.

•       Thought goes in the direction of the emotion

The thought takes the direction of the emotion

                                                                        

 Thought and ignorance:       Thought is the medium of knowledge. However, taking our thought very seriously is the foundation for ignorance.

•       The main aim of the thought is to conserve or expand the physical body, emotional body or psychic body (beliefs, self-image) of the organism

•       Most ignorant people are not those who have less amount of intellectual knowledge or who has less ability to think but those who think that their thought is everything. These people believe that their thought is final and their view of the world is ultimate.

•       Ignorant people cannot consider other people’s opinions because of the undue belief in their own views and thoughts. This is due to a lack of insight.

Compulsive thinking is an outcome of our ignorance to our delusional thinking

•       Compulsive thinking is a psychological struggle when the physical, emotional or psychological body of a person is threatened.

•       A delusion is nothing but an idiosyncratic belief or impression maintained despite being contradicted by reality or rational argument,

•       There are 2 delusions which operate while we deal with the world

•       The foundation of what we consider as truths are based on two delusions

1. This world is certain

2. I am permanent.

1 Delusion of Certainity : The world is  certain

The sugar crystal is perceived by an ant, a boy and an elephant in a completely different way. However, all of three are equally certain about the structure of the sugar crystal in their own way. This difference is because of the variation in the resolution of their sense organs, variation in the association areas in their neural network, differences in their memories and self-images.  In the same way, the world is different for each organism. In other words, there is no fixed structure for this world. It varies with the eye and belief beneath the eye of the beholder.

    2. Delusion of permanence : I am permanent

•       I operate in this world as if “I am permanent". It is not because I don't know that I am going to die someday or other. It is only because I underplay or neglect my impermanent nature when I operate in this world.

Insight, introspection, being conscious of self, being meditative are few ways by which we can get rid    of compulsive thinking

·      Having the delusion of “certainty of the world” and “Permanent nature of the self" is the root of ignorance. This ignorance brings a lot of fear and anxiety. These emotions of fear and anxiety are the soil for compulsive thinking.

·      Having a continuous introspection and vigilance on our mind can make our escape from compulsive thinking.